Manchester Native In Nepal A Witness To Tragedy, Resiliency

When the first tremors of the last Saturday's devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake began just before noon, Manchester native Douglas von Hollen was enjoying a normal day with his family in Kathmandu.

"I was laying in bed reading… and the first shocks literally lifted me off the bed," von Hollen said in an email.

He found his wife, Fabiola, and their son in the hallway. They held on to the walls and floor as the tremors rocked the house.

"The three of us sheltered for what seemed like an eternity as we watched the walls of our house twist and bend," he said. When the quaking stopped, von Hollen said he and his family ran outside to find safety with the rest of their neighborhood.

In the week since the mammoth earthquake ravaged Nepal, leaving more than 6,000 dead and countless more injured, von Hollen said he's seen devastation, frustration and, despite the overwhelming circumstances, resiliency and hope in the people of his new country.

"We carry on knowing that we are spared and alive for a reason," von Hollen said. "We deal with the trauma we experienced and move on as humans are so adept at doing."

Von Hollen and his wife moved to Kathmandu, Nepal's capital city, with their young son Hunter in 2013. Born in Hartford and raised in Manchester, von Hollen is a teacher who has worked in schools from Connecticut to Bolivia, where he met his wife. Von Hollen said he spent two years teaching in New Haven and eight in Manchester, at the Illing Middle School where he attended class as a boy.

While their home in the capital city remains inhabitable, von Hollen said his family was without power until Thursday. They spent the week seeking out friends and fresh food, speaking with local relief workers and readying the school where von Hollen and his wife work for when classes resume this coming week.

Fortunately, von Hollen said, the entire school community – teachers, students and support staff – are safe. Some lost their homes, but there were no deaths or serious injuries, he said.

By Friday morning, the death toll from the earthquake, the most powerful recorded in Nepal since 1934, had risen to 6,260. Another 13,827 were injured in the quake and approximately 2.8 million have been displaced, according to the World Health Organization. Sixteen makeshift camps have been set up in Kathmandu and the Nepalese government is appealing to international donors to send tents and tarpaulins for temporary shelter.

"There are still thousands of people sleeping in the streets and in open areas and there has been rain every day to make their lives more miserable," von Hollen said.

The relief efforts are ongoing, as rescuers work to clear the rubble in search of survivors. On Thursday, a teenager and a woman in her twenties were found alive under a mountain of debris in Kathmandu, a brief moment of triumph while the death toll rises daily across the country. Some of the more remote villages have yet to receive aid because of the difficult terrain, made worse by damage from the quake.

Von Hollen said that his school has been unable to connect with one of its rural sister schools, despite the fact that it is barely 30 miles away.

What's even more frustrating, von Hollen said, are the obstacles that relief workers have run into trying to get aid to those who need it most. Aside from the physical impediments, there are political barriers to be dealt with, he said.

"The dysfunctional and corrupt government is actually taxing relief materials that are coming in so the airport is littered with aid that the government will not release because the imposed taxes haven't been paid," von Hollen said.

Volunteer rescue workers in the city told von Hollen that they are incredibly frustrated with their government, he said. The most help they've seen comes from international aid organizations and non-governmental organizations, von Hollen said.

The best way to help the Nepalese people is to donate, he said, but donors should be sure to research where the money goes. Donating directly to Nepal-based organizations can help ensure that the money gets where it needs to go, he said.

"People can help by not giving blindly, by being encouraged to fully vet the organization they're are planning to donate to," von Hollen said.

In the midst of all these challenges, von Hollen said that this week has shown him the true nature and resiliency of the Nepalese people.

"There are beautiful people who need support," he said.

In Kathmandu, people have begun taking fallen bricks out of the street and piling them to the side of the road to be used in rebuilding, von Hollen said. Strangers are calling each other by the Nepalese words usually reserved for an elder brother or sister, he said.

"We help anyone we can directly, we feed our spoiled food to the starving dogs of the streets… we do what we can to reduce the suffering," von Hollen said.

Von Hollen's workplace, the Lincoln School, is accepting donations for their earthquake relief fund here: http://www.lsnepal.com/. A list of other aid organizations can be found here: http://www.courant.com/nation-world/hc-nepal-how-to-help-0426-story.html.